Fashion, Beauty & Style
Fashion in New York
What People Wear Where it Matters Most
Fashion is an incredibly crucial part of society. It influences politics, social customs, and the global economy, and on a smaller scale it can serve the purpose of self expression. Every person, everyday makes the conscious decision of what they are going to wear. They weigh practicality over appearance based on geographic, socioeconomic, and personal standards.
As the fashion capital of the world, New York City has a unique relationship with the industry. For some, fashion is a form of artistic expression, while for others, it speaks more to the practicality of a workplace. The origins and cultural significance of fashion and its surrounding industry, though often trivialized, influence the daily lives of everyone across the globe. New York simply brings out its duality in both a functional and symbolic capacity.
The History
How Clothing Made the Early Man
Throughout history, what people wore held significance outside of just the practical sense. It has always been a symbol of prosperity and connection. In Ancient Egypt the material one wore was an easy identifier of their status. The wealthier the individual, the more transparent their clothing would be. The Egyptians were also the only ancient culture to produce blue dye. Their mining of the rare lapis lazuli introduced a new color that only the very rich were able to afford.
Similarly, the shade commonly known as “royal blue” dates back to the seventeenth century England. It originated from a competition to see who could create the most striking dress for Queen Charlotte (1744–1818). During this time silk, satin, velvet, and brocade were made available solely to the wealthier members of society, while lower classes “such as laborers and apprentices” dressed from limited garments and with function in mind (Hanson).This blatant differentiation between the haves and the have nots has always been deeply integrated into society.
New York Now
Take a look around on the street or in the subway, it is easy to identify those with money and those without. What gave it away? The material of their clothing, their shoes, the bags they are holding. A briefcase, a purse, and a ratty backpack are all going to belong to specific individuals. In gentrified areas it is easy to spot a four thousand dollar designer handbag, but head to ChinaTown and one would be hard pressed to find a purse that isn’t a knock-off version at a fraction of the price.
The surgance of consigning and preserving brands makes higher quality items available to those with less of a budget. Sure, it is still easy to tell the difference between a hipster who bought an oversized jacket from a thrift store and a homeless person who found theirs in donation bin. However, people have begun to cross the boundaries of wealth and this in and of itself makes a statement.
“Not one culture, even historically, was there no clothing. There is a nudist movement, but it’s here and there — they participate for a few hours here and there — but at night, they probably put clothes on.”
— Dov Charney (CEO and Founder of American Apparel)
The Industry
Trivializing Trillions
The trivialization of the fashion industry comes mostly from a place of ignorance of its influence not only on culture, but also on the global economy. Designing, producing, and marketing clothing is a massive undertaking from the sketchbook to the runway to the retail store. Not to mention that fashion is a multi-trillion dollar industry. It is “conservatively estimated to be worth over US $1.3 Trillion (around 2% of the value of the world economy).” To put that into context, “the global pharmaceutical industry (supplying all the medicines in the world) is just over half that in size (at US$880 billion)” (Shah). So often an occupation or major in fashion merchandising or design will be looked down upon despite the industry employing 1.9 million in the United States alone.
Intercoastal Impact
“The Economic Impact of the Fashion Industry” released by Congress in 2015 states that “New York City and Los Angeles are the two largest fashion hubs in the United States, with over two-thirds of all fashion designers employed in these cities. But they are not the whole story, and cities such as San Francisco, Nashville, and Columbus are beginning to reap economic benefits, including high-paying jobs in fashion design.”
The field is growing exponentially. It is highly competitive and a significant contributor to the job market and economy as a whole. Pioneering the fashion industry and continuing to lead it today, New York has grown to understand the relevance it maintains, yet so many are still quick to disassociate themselves with it.
The Cultural Significance
Fashion in Manhattan
How the public views and utilizes fashion varies significantly based on location and income level. In larger cities, especially those that embrace diversity and culture, what people wear is taken more seriously and is held to higher standards. The trends change faster in New York and Los Angeles. Style is more of a status symbol and less of an afterthought. Even between the two cities there are differences. In Los Angeles an emphasis is placed on conformity, whereas Manhattan prioritizes character and originality.
New Yorkers are known to be inherently well dressed; they wear all black and fill their closets with big ticket items. While these concepts hold a bit of truth, they are oversimplified and impossible to apply to the entirety of New York’s residents, especially those who reside off the island. The socioeconomic conditions and industries popularized in neighborhoods and entire boroughs can determine how their inhabitants will dress. Those in Central Park South and SoHo will dress for self-expression and as a form of artistic identity, while the “Midtown Uniform” (slacks, a dress shirt, and a Patagonia vest) donned by men from fourteenth to fifty ninth has become so recognizable that it spawned a social media presence and Instagram account by the same name.
Off the Island
Leave Manhattan altogether and one will find clothing devoid of most all aesthetic purposes. The blue collar lifestyle so well known in parts of Queens and the Bronx prioritizes function over fashion. Individuals choose clothing that facilitates their hard work, pieces that can get dirty and that have an ease of motion about them. Robin Givhan, Pulitzer Prize winning fashion writer and former special correspondent for Newsweek, comments on the ways in which one’s interactions with clothing can send a specific message. “I’m also fascinated by the way that politicians use clothes,” she explains.
“One of my favourite campaign gestures is when the male candidate takes off his suit jacket, unbuttons his shirt-cuff and pushes up his sleeve. It’s a universal sign to say, ‘… I’m now going to speak earnestly to the blue collar workers…”
While this messaging is universal, it holds greater significance in New York City than nearly anywhere else, considering the massive conglomerate of cultures and financial situations present throughout the boroughs.
“It’s always entertaining to see the vaguely-sheltered, upper-middle-class designer customer wearing something that has its origins in the world of gay nightclubs, strip clubs or something insane like that…”
— Robin Givhan
Examining how people perceive and utilize fashion in New York helps to solidify its influence in both a literal and representative sense. Throughout history, what people wore was held to a standard of practicality and gradually gravitated towards more of a status symbol. Now, the way in which one chooses to present themselves to the world through patterns and hemlines and brand names is the most tactile interpretation of human expression available on a daily basis.
On a global level fashion drives economies, it creates jobs, it breaks through glass ceilings. On an individual level it can be a catalyst to one’s professional goals; consider the phrase “dress for the job you want”. It affects one’s interactions with others and other’s first impressions of them. People choose to dress practically, or to dress originally, or to not dress at all as a way of making a statement about themselves from afar. Fashion is humanity’s method of putting its best foot forward, or in this case its best shoe.
